Using state and national data, the report, co-authored by Smith, Anthony Carnevale, the center's director, and Jeff Strohl, the center's research director, projects that a total of 55 million new jobs will be created from 2010 to 2020. Twenty-four million of the jobs are expected to be newly-created positions. The rest are expected to result from retiring baby boomers.

"If the U.S. Congress can deal with budgetary challenges, we are on schedule for recovery," Carnevale said in a press release accompanying the report.

The catch, however, about all the new jobs is that there may not be enough qualified workers to fill the openings. According to the Georgetown study, five million of the total job vacancies will remain open throughout the decade as Americans fail to receive the proper educational and technical training.